On her way to the Mercenary Guild, Katarea faced a surprising problem. No matter where she went, everyone looked at her as if she was a monster or some sort of rare animal. She knew that races like Djinns were rare in Japan, but still it was quite unnerving. Especially since she saw Elves and Beastmen on her way. They were the most common and pacific types of humanoid races. They blended perfectly with humans and were really liked, Elves were so intelligent that most of them became scientists, teachers or even politicians. Beastmen on the other way did succeed in getting accepted in the society, but there was still a long way to go. Beastmen struggled to live normal lives, simply because they weren't used to the modern world.
Anyway Katarea soon saw the building and had to pause, it didn't look like a guild. Atleast it didn't look like she thought it would. In some way it ressembled a bank. She entered and went to see a member of the staff.
However the stares inside the building became even more oppressive than in the streets. Something that seemed to make Katarea angry, but there was no way to know what she was thinking at the moment.
Her hands formed fists, her teeth clenched and her body trembled, but before she could do anything a hand appeared on her shoulder. Katarea looked up and saw a middle-aged man glaring at the other mercenaries who quickly lowered their heads. The man was quite handsome, with a trimmed black beard, long black hair tied in a ponytail, a green piercing eye and the other closed, a huge horizontal scar on it. He then looked at her and talked in a low voice.
« Don't get so worked up because of those dumbassess, they are just curious. » Said the man. Katarea slowly nodded and was lead towards a staff member by the man.
« This is the only staff member who won't give a damn about your race, when you come here deal with her. » Said the man as he gestured at the staff member standing behind the counter who smiled.
Katarea wanted to say thanks to the man but he was already walking towards the stairs that lead to the second floor.
« So....What did you needed ? » Asked the female staff member. Looking closely, Katarea could see her name written on her uniform.
« Hanabi, right ? I want to register me and my companion as mercenaries. » Said Katarea as Hanabi nodded.
« Well it should be easy. Here, you just have to write some basic informations about yourself, then do the same for your friend. Oh and by the way, newcomers need to complete a quest or a task on the first week, it's like a test. » Said Hanabi. Katarea nodded and began to write on the two paper sheets that Hanabi gave her. After she finished she gave the papers back to Hanabi who smiled.
« Well now you just need to go the quest board and see what sort of quests there are. You can also check on our website. It's better since you can see all the quests and tasks. By the way tasks are like private quests. Some clients can issue a quest that is made for only some mercenaries. To know if there are tasks you can complete or if anyone asked specially for you, you either need to come here or see on our website. » Said Hanabi. Katarea took some time to understand but then she nodded and turned towards the board. It was actually a big screen which showed a list of quests ranked by tiers.
Katarea observed the board for a few minutes before she noticed an interesting quest. She then went back to hanabi and told her which quest she chose. Hanabi warned her about the difficulty of the quest, but Katarea shook her off. Hanabi then typed on her computer and told Katarea that the mission was now hers. Satisfied, Katarea left the building and walked in the direction of the hotel, unaware that the same man who had helped her before was watching her from behind a window.
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{ Two hours later }
Now back at the hotel, Katarea entered the room and was immediately hit by a rotten smell. She looked around but saw nothing so she walked and came face to face with Bora who busy opening all the windows.
« What happened master ? » She asked. Bora coughed a few times before pointing at the broken crown that was on the bed. Katarea looked and saw that a dark purple liquid covered it.
« I tried to *Cough* multiply the crown but the energy needed was too high so Yoru canceled the process and the other crown exploded and became that weird liquid. It smells awful as you noticed. Go and wash the crown in the bathroom while I wash the blanket and get that smell out of there. By the way Yoru....I freaking hate you. » Said Bora bitterly.
They then wasted a whole hour before the blanket and the crown were clean and the room didn't smell like it was filled with corpses. After they finished, they both sat on the bed and Katarea took out a PC.
« Where did you even get that ?! » Asked Bora.
« The staff member at the guild told me I needed to go on the mercenary guild's website, so I stole this thing called a PC. A man was using it in that place called cafe but he went to the toilet so I discreetly took his PC and ran. » Said Katarea, puffing her chest out as she felt proud of herself. Bora smiled and shook his head.
« I'm proud of you Katarea. You know my father always told me that as long as no one know what you're doing, then you can do whatever you want. » Said Bora. Katarea nodded and then put the PC on the bed. However she didn't know how to use it so she gestured for Bora to use it himself.
He sighed but still did it. After a few minutes of browsing through the web, he finally found the website. Katarea gave him the name of the quest which greatly confused, but he still searched it on the website and found the quest. It was written that the quest had been accepted by the newbie mercenaries, Katarea and Bora. But what really caught Bora's eyes was the quest itself.
« ...Katarea, I'm supposed to go with you, you know ? How am I supposed to survive this ?! »